Crime of horror: 4 slayings in burning house

First neighbors heard arguing, then gunshots. A short time later, the three-family house was ablaze.

When firefighters arrived at 172 Columbia Ave. in Irvington shortly after 7:30 a.m., they found two teenagers on the first floor. Both had been shot. In a front bedroom, they found the bodies of two other people, both burned beyond recognition.

Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow called the crime "absolutely horrific."

"No community should suffer what these families are going through right now," she said.

Latrisha Fields-Carruthers, 13, and Zakiyyah Jones, 18, were pronounced dead of gunshot wounds at University Hospital in Newark. Jones had clung to life for several hours before dying in the early afternoon.

The identities of the two other victims were withheld pending autopsies and examination of dental records by the state Regional Medical Examiner's Office. Authorities said the bodies were so badly burned, it could not even be confirmed they had been shot.

Authorities said they had "leads" on the gunman but had not made any arrests.

"We do believe that the fire was set to mask the shootings -- and now homicides -- in the apartment," Dow said.

Three tenants on the second floor and one on the third escaped without injury. The fire was extinguished within an hour. Among those who fled from the apartment unharmed was a 14-month-old boy, Dow said.

Mina VanDerveer, who lives on the same block, said a group of young people who lived in the house took refuge in her home. They included the 14-month-old.

"He was just covered in blood," VanDerveer said. "You could just take his shirt and wring it. He was just shaking."

The prosecutor's office could not confirm reports from neighbors that the baby was in bed with one of the victims when she was shot.

Jessie Lawrence, 45, who lives in a neighboring home, said he awoke to the sound of screaming.

"The young lady ran out screaming that someone had shot her mother," he said. "She was just in her undergarments and she was hysterical. She had a kid that had blood all over his shirt and his face. I just comforted her and called 911.

"A few minutes after she came out of the house, it went up in flames. It was total chaos on the street," Lawrence said.

Dow said witnesses heard a violent argument in the three-family home in the early morning before shots rang out. She said the Irvington and Newark fire departments arrived at the home -- one house from the Newark border -- as flames were coming from the first-floor apartment.

Noel Harris, who lived on the top floor, said a noise awakened him at about 7:35 a.m.

"I just heard like a hammer. Like somebody nailing up a door or something. Three, four, five," said Harris. "I kept on hearing this frantic screaming.

"I looked out the window and realized the house was on fire. I saw the blaze. The daughter was out in the street running back and forth, crying."

While the prosecutor's office would not release the identities of the badly burned victims, the building's owner, Rohan Jackson, said the first floor was rented to Candes McLean. Jackson said he believes McLean was one of the people in the home yesterday morning.

Two law enforcement officials said McLean was among the dead. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a forensic identification had not been completed but they based their information on witness interviews and other evidence from the scene.

Police would not say whether any of the victims were related.

Those who knew McLean already were speaking of her in the past tense yesterday.

"She did a lot of stuff for the community and for kids," Jackson said, his head in his hands as he sat on a low wall down the block from the gutted home. "They're all very respectful people."

Jackson said McLean had at least two young adult children and a toddler grandson. He said he believed one of the homicide victims was the tenant's daughter, who had just graduated from high school.

Neighborhood residents said McLean raised a nice family and worked with children in the community. They said she was a cheerleading coach for a Pop Warner football team in Newark, the North Ward Scorpions, and was known to her girls as Coach Candy.

"She was like a mother to those young ladies," said Nasir Gaines, head coach of the football team. "She bought them a lot of stuff that they weren't able to get on their own, whatever it was -- sneakers, food, money."

Terrie Davis, 47, of Linden leaned on a fence across from the house, with tears in her eyes. She said she had known McLean for 15 years.

"Her smile was wonderful," Davis said. "She always helped everybody. She'd have a thousand girls and she'd make two and three trips and take them to the basketball game and the football games or the competition. Then she would take them out and spend her money and buy them food and dinner. She was a caring, loving person."

Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said the county's Crimestoppers program was offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the slaying. Anyone with information was asked to call the prosecutor's homicide squad at (973) 621-4586.